Taliban leader vows U.S. attacks

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Baitullah Mahsud, the leader of Pakistan's Taliban movement, threatened Tuesday to launch attacks inside the United States in retaliation for American missile strikes aimed at militant leaders sheltering in Pakistan's tribal areas.

In an unusual step, the normally reclusive Mahsud made a round of calls to media representatives claiming responsibility for a commando-style strike on a police training school near the eastern city of Lahore a day earlier. In those calls, he also threatened to widen his campaign of attacks.

"Our mission is to continue jihad in Afghanistan and Pakistan and to avenge drone attacks, even inside America," he told a representative of the Los Angeles Times. Asked about a $5 million American bounty on his head, he replied: "Martyrdom is our aim, and we would be very happy if we could achieve it."

Mahsud is blamed for dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks inside Pakistan, including the December 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, for which he has denied responsibility.